I arrived in McLeod Ganj (which is also known as Upper Dharams(h)ala) with the intention of doing some English teaching as a volunteer with one of the many groups that helps Tibetan refugees and chilling out for a bit. After the cricket match with Sam, he introduced me to his pals that he'd been hanging out with who were also volunteering in the English tutoring sector at a place called LHA. On Monday I headed over to LHA and asked about volunteering my skills and they said to come back at 4 and hold a conversation class. Having paid $1500 for a TEFL certificate and having taught an English class (poorly) at PCC in Portland I had some idea how to fake my way through an hour of conversation with struggling English speakers.
I bummed around, going down to a temple area with thousands of prayer flags hung up, where I added myself to a tour group of college-looking kids being led by an American expat. I asked a young lady what the tour was and she said they were a group of college kids doing a semester abroad studying Buddhist philosophy and that it was normal for tourists to join their group for a bit, so I kept up with them. She was and her friend were from Bates College, but her friend was originally from NE Portland and said his dad rented a bike from me!
The leader took us to the main temple complex where the Dalai Lama lives and we entered the main temple after removing our shoes. There were a few people and monks praying and there were golden statues of the Tibetan Buddhist gods with packages of biscuits and digestives piled high in front of them as offerings. I always feel super weird being a tourist with my camera in a holy place where someone is praying in earnest. But that don't stop me from taking some pictures! The Tibetan version of Buddhism explained to us by the expat, who was fluent in Tibetan, seemed pretty complex for a religion that preaches simplicity. Perhaps the indigenous Tibetan religion has been infused into 1400 years of Buddhism in Tibet. Were I not lazy, I would look into it.
After stopping for momos from a lady on the street and checking out the shops full of knock off North Face and Mammut gear with my 2 pals, I went back to LHA. At the top of the steps there were 40 or 50 people waiting for their English class to begin. The volunteer coordinator pulled me aside and introduced me to Tenzin Sangpo, a Tibetan monk who I would tutor for an hour a day as well. We decided to meet the next day at 3 at the Ashoka Restaurant.
I squeezed into the room that was filled with the 50 or so mostly Tibetan folks mostly in their 20s and 30s, and a handful of English speakers. The students waved me over to their circle of 7-13 students and I went to the first one I saw wave to me. There were clearly not enough "teachers" for the students. We sat on pillows on the floor and I asked them all to introduce themselves and say their favorite thing to do. Invariably, with a group like this, there are always people whose skills are either too strong or too weak to be meaningfully included in most of the goings on. I did my best to include everyone, even those who were too shy to voluntarily speak. They asked about the USA and what I did for a living, how old I was, what I thought about Barack Obama (guess what I told them!), and if I was married. The class went well enough, despite my barely being able to hear my softspoken students over the din of the street below and the other 40 people crammed into the small room. The hour was quickly over and the students thanked me graciously.
The next day at 3, I met Tenzin at Ashoka, shaved head, hip glasses, maroon robes. His English was somewhere between beginner and intermediate. I asked him his story, more out of my own curiosity than for his practice, and he told me that in 1994, when he was 13, he traveled on foot with a group of 30 other people over the mountains, trying to evade the Chinese army on their way to Dharamshala, where lives the Dalai Lama and where they have sanctuary. He said that one time the Chinese army captured members of his group and took all their money and food before letting them go. It took 21 days all together. He grew up in a small village of 16 families where there was no running water or electricity, no school. His family had 4 horses and some other livestock and they grew their own food. His mother would buy him new shoes and he would run around in the mud, he told me, then she would whack him for dirtying his new shoes. His younger brother still lived in the village with his mother, but his younger sister now lived in another village. When he arrived in India, he went to a monastery in the south where he studied Buddhism and learned to read and write Tibetan. He arrived in McCleod Ganj a few months ago and had been studying science (evolution, microbiology, physics, etc.) all whilst being a monk.
I asked him what he does all day and he said that he cooks food, and meditates for 15 or 30 minutes if he's feeling happy, but otherwise doesn't do it. I thought monks meditated all day, only to break for food and to chat on their iphones! I guess it's not mandatory. He said he meditated on compassion for people and animals and his attachment to money, things, and people. My impression was that his interest in monkhood was more for convenience and a better life free from China's tyranny, rather than piety and a desire to abstain from life's temptations. This, I understood through his broken English so I could be way off.
We got on well, and I enjoyed our sessions. On our last meeting, when I ordered a black tea, he said I should order an apple tea, which, I think, was hot apple juice with a tea bag in it. Caffeine and sugar! As a parting gift, he gave me a box of incense and I gave him my email, saying that I could help him with his homework if he needed it. He asked if I were coming back next year and I told him, "maybe." I wish we could have hung out more.
Put that in your tyranny-free SkullBong and smoke it.
I bummed around, going down to a temple area with thousands of prayer flags hung up, where I added myself to a tour group of college-looking kids being led by an American expat. I asked a young lady what the tour was and she said they were a group of college kids doing a semester abroad studying Buddhist philosophy and that it was normal for tourists to join their group for a bit, so I kept up with them. She was and her friend were from Bates College, but her friend was originally from NE Portland and said his dad rented a bike from me!
The leader took us to the main temple complex where the Dalai Lama lives and we entered the main temple after removing our shoes. There were a few people and monks praying and there were golden statues of the Tibetan Buddhist gods with packages of biscuits and digestives piled high in front of them as offerings. I always feel super weird being a tourist with my camera in a holy place where someone is praying in earnest. But that don't stop me from taking some pictures! The Tibetan version of Buddhism explained to us by the expat, who was fluent in Tibetan, seemed pretty complex for a religion that preaches simplicity. Perhaps the indigenous Tibetan religion has been infused into 1400 years of Buddhism in Tibet. Were I not lazy, I would look into it.
After stopping for momos from a lady on the street and checking out the shops full of knock off North Face and Mammut gear with my 2 pals, I went back to LHA. At the top of the steps there were 40 or 50 people waiting for their English class to begin. The volunteer coordinator pulled me aside and introduced me to Tenzin Sangpo, a Tibetan monk who I would tutor for an hour a day as well. We decided to meet the next day at 3 at the Ashoka Restaurant.
I squeezed into the room that was filled with the 50 or so mostly Tibetan folks mostly in their 20s and 30s, and a handful of English speakers. The students waved me over to their circle of 7-13 students and I went to the first one I saw wave to me. There were clearly not enough "teachers" for the students. We sat on pillows on the floor and I asked them all to introduce themselves and say their favorite thing to do. Invariably, with a group like this, there are always people whose skills are either too strong or too weak to be meaningfully included in most of the goings on. I did my best to include everyone, even those who were too shy to voluntarily speak. They asked about the USA and what I did for a living, how old I was, what I thought about Barack Obama (guess what I told them!), and if I was married. The class went well enough, despite my barely being able to hear my softspoken students over the din of the street below and the other 40 people crammed into the small room. The hour was quickly over and the students thanked me graciously.
The next day at 3, I met Tenzin at Ashoka, shaved head, hip glasses, maroon robes. His English was somewhere between beginner and intermediate. I asked him his story, more out of my own curiosity than for his practice, and he told me that in 1994, when he was 13, he traveled on foot with a group of 30 other people over the mountains, trying to evade the Chinese army on their way to Dharamshala, where lives the Dalai Lama and where they have sanctuary. He said that one time the Chinese army captured members of his group and took all their money and food before letting them go. It took 21 days all together. He grew up in a small village of 16 families where there was no running water or electricity, no school. His family had 4 horses and some other livestock and they grew their own food. His mother would buy him new shoes and he would run around in the mud, he told me, then she would whack him for dirtying his new shoes. His younger brother still lived in the village with his mother, but his younger sister now lived in another village. When he arrived in India, he went to a monastery in the south where he studied Buddhism and learned to read and write Tibetan. He arrived in McCleod Ganj a few months ago and had been studying science (evolution, microbiology, physics, etc.) all whilst being a monk.
I asked him what he does all day and he said that he cooks food, and meditates for 15 or 30 minutes if he's feeling happy, but otherwise doesn't do it. I thought monks meditated all day, only to break for food and to chat on their iphones! I guess it's not mandatory. He said he meditated on compassion for people and animals and his attachment to money, things, and people. My impression was that his interest in monkhood was more for convenience and a better life free from China's tyranny, rather than piety and a desire to abstain from life's temptations. This, I understood through his broken English so I could be way off.
We got on well, and I enjoyed our sessions. On our last meeting, when I ordered a black tea, he said I should order an apple tea, which, I think, was hot apple juice with a tea bag in it. Caffeine and sugar! As a parting gift, he gave me a box of incense and I gave him my email, saying that I could help him with his homework if he needed it. He asked if I were coming back next year and I told him, "maybe." I wish we could have hung out more.
Put that in your tyranny-free SkullBong and smoke it.
